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Hye Geen Pregnant Women’s Centers

AGBU Hye Geen was established in 1994 in Los Angeles with the goal of both aiding and empowering women, and its Pregnant Women’s Centers, which bring free, high-quality pre- and post-natal care and counseling to Armenia’s most impoverished regions, have since become one of its flagship projects.

At a time when Armenia’s infant mortality rates were on the rise and the country was seeing a general decline in maternal health, AGBU Hye Geen mobilized support for new facilities that would offer women improved services and help reverse the startling statistics. In 2002, AGBU Hye Geen unveiled its first Pregnant Women’s Center in Gyumri.

AGBU Hye Geen opened the doors to its second center in Vanadzor in 2006, which was followed by the third in Talin in 2008. In 2011, the AGBU Hye Geen Nora Injijian Center in Yeghvart was established, helping to shorten the long waiting lists of women eager to meet not only with medical staff but also with psychologists, social workers and lawyers. The centers serve as a forum to educate women on their rights, and how to take care of their physical and mental well-being. By sending prenatal vitamins, as well as clothing on occasion, from the United States to the centers, AGBU Hye Geen takes an extra step to prepare expectant mothers for all that will come both during and after pregnancy.

Over the years, the AGBU Hye Geen Pregnant Women’s Centers have played an important role in ensuring the delivery of over 1,555 healthy babies and creating networks of support that their mothers are otherwise lacking.

The Hye Geen Committee, based in Los Angeles, is also committed to raising awareness on a host of themes that affect the broader Armenian community. In 2006, it initiated its yearly Interdisciplinary Conference, and since 2003 it has actively attended the United Nations Annual Non-Governmental Organizations Conference, pushing for the implementation of the UN Millennium Development Goals through projects in California and Armenia.